Labour councillors are pressing North West Leicestershire District Council to drop highly controversial employment land policies from the Local Plan.

The policies in question provide a loophole which enables developers to build huge new warehouses almost anywhere they like on land designated as countryside, provided it has a reasonable connection to the road network.

Most recently, the new G-Park Ashby development, close to the A511 and the junction with the A42, was given the go-ahead despite strong opposition from Ashby de la Zouch Town Council and Ashby Civic Society G-Park Gets Green Light.

At a meeting of the Local Plan Committee on Wednesday night, Labour councillors proposed an important amendment expressing the committee's "strong preference" that these policies be dropped as part of the ongoing Local Plan Review.

Labour councillors are calling for the Council to find suitable sites across the District to satisfy the need for employment land, including reserve sites, and to specifically designate those sites in the new Local Plan.

This would replace the open-ended policies in the current plan.

Labour's planning spokesperson, John Legrys, said: "Unfortunately, all the Tory councillors voted against our amendment and it was lost.

"But this won't stop us continuing to press for the new Local Plan to include much stronger protection for our countryside whilst designating suitable sites for new businesses to flourish.

"We heard on Wednesday how the demand for vast warehouse sites in the District is distorting the market and pricing out provision of manufacturing and start-up business units.

"These are the types of new business that can provide our communities with well paid, high skilled jobs.

"The Local Plan needs to be proactive in correcting these market distortions, whilst limiting the current free-for-all that is encouraged by the Tory government's National Planning Policy Framework."

Sean Sheahan, Labour Group Leader, added, "We need to re-balance our local economy, providing an environment where local businesses can flourish and grow to provide a much greater range of employment opportunities.

"Research, commissioned by the Council, shows a large number of our residents have to commute out of the area to their jobs whilst many others travel in, to the logistics centres around the airport, with more to come.

"The new Local Plan is an important opportunity to influence these trends."